Predictors of premilitary courtship violence in a navy recruit sample

Research on intimate partner (IP) aggression was extended to premilitary experiences of IP violence among U.S. Navy recruits. Riggs and O'Leary's (1989) model of courtship aggression was examined separately for men (N = 1,307) and women (N = 1,477). A test was conducted of the model using participant gender along with the significant variables from the initial analyses and the interaction of gender with each of these variables. Situational components explained more variance than did the background components. For women and men, the amount of variance accounted for was almost tripled after the addition of the situational factors. Partner aggression contributed to a substantial increase in the amount of variance. Partner's verbal aggression was the single best predictor of aggression, and partner's physical aggression was the second-best predictor. The situational component substantially increased the predictive power of the model. The results support the validity of the Riggs and O'Leary model.